14 DAY TRIAL // Football Manager 2011 is a deep, deep video game, and that's both a blessing and a curse for the latest installment in the long running management series which is being developed by Sports Interactive and has changed publishers to SEGA.
At one point any lover of the most popular sports in the world (that's football aka soccer for all those in North America) has imagined himself in charge of his favorite team, trying to do better than the man who holds the job of manager in the real word.
Football Manager has become quite deep in terms of team management in its previous iterations, allowing control over all aspects of training, over team creation and tactics and there are some nice additions on this front in the new installment , like the ability to be more hands on when it comes to the creation of set piece situations.
But the real evolution in Football Manager 2011 is when it comes to the personal relations that a manager must have in order to manage a successful side.
There are talks you can have with the press, trying to play mind games with opposition players and managers, but also with your own players, trying to squeeze that extra bit of performance out of that tired midfielder or picking a good and capable mentor for a young prodigy that could drive your squad in the coming years.
And there are the dreaded talks with the superiors, the people who decide how much money you can spend on transfers and wages.
And, most entertaining, there are press conferences to deny any interested in the player you will sign in six days or to storm out of.
And, best of all, about 6 hours filled with Premiership management in Football Manager 2010 show a game which manages to offer a lot of options while also allowing quite a bit of automation and making all important information immediately available for the player who has less time to play than he would.